A TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON

Music video by Michael Jackson performing Beat It

Anwar: Hadi, Kit Siang and I remain committed to Pakatan

SUARA KEADILAN

By Anwar Ibrahim

Kenyataan ini saya edarkan setelah berbincang dengan Ustaz Abdul Hadi Awang dan Sdr. Lim Kit Siang semalam. Kami mengulangi komitmen untuk memperkukuhkan kerjasama Pakatan Rakyat bagi menjayakan Agenda Perubahan.

Kami berpendapat adalah penting untuk memberi peluang dan ruang kepada rakan-rakan parti komponen untuk menjelaskan pendirian mereka berhubung sebarang isu yang berbangkit.

Kami percaya perselisihan kecil yang digembar gembur oleh media Umno-BN tidak akan meretakkan permuafakatan yang terbina dari iltizam untuk membawa Perubahan kepada rakyat Malaysia keseluruhannya.

Perlu dijelaskan bahawa isu rundingan PAS-umno yang berbangkit dari kenyataan Ustaz Abdul Hadi pada sidang akhbar selepas menyampaikan ucapan dasar di muktamar tahunan baru-baru ini harus dilihat dalam konteks pidato Presiden Pas.

Dalam pidato tersebut Ustaz Abdul Hadi mengulangi komitmen PAS untuk memastikan Perubahan terlaksana melalui wadah Pakatan Rakyat dan menggariskan kewajaran muafakat antara parti bagi menyelesaikan krisis Perak melalui pilihanraya, menggesa agar badan kehakiman bebas dari sebarang kongkongan dan pilihanraya yang telus.

Inshaallah permuafakatan Keadilan, PAS dan DAP akan bertambah utuh dari hari ke hari. Rakyat Malaysia mahukan sebuah kerajaan yang bertanggungjawab, telus dan cekap mentadbir bagi kembali memacu negara ini ke persada. Pakatan Rakyat bersedia menggalas tanggungjawab demi memastikan negara ini berada di landasan yang tepat.

ANWAR IBRAHIM
KETUA PEMBANGKANG
DEWAN RAKYAT MALAYSIA

Grounds for dissent in a KL coffee party

THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — Dressed in black, the colour of protest, 200 activists sat at cafe tables quietly drinking coffee — black, of course. Bewildered, police stood outside and watched the coffee drinkers without interfering.

The protest at three cafes in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, was their way around a ban on unauthorised protests. It was the latest twist in a row over the governing National Front coalition’s seizure of power in Perak state.

“Police were coming down hard on us and so we used this unique way to protest and tell people to demand an election in Perak,” said Wong Chin Huat, a protest leader and academic at the city’s Monash University campus. “We managed to send the message across.”

However, Sunday’s protest — which the academic called a “mild form” of civil disobedience — did not last long. Within half an hour, the managers of the cafes – outlets of the popular Old Town White Coffee chain — had ushered the protesters and other customers out the door. A spokeswoman said the three were shutting temporarily for “regular maintenance and renovations”.

She said it was unfair of protesters to use the chain’s outlets for the protest. “We have loyal patrons who are unhappy with so many people suddenly appearing all wearing black, which we associate with death. This is very bad for business.”

Undeterred, pro-opposition NGOs yesterday announced they would repeat the protest tomorrow — at seven Old Town outlets in the capital and Penang. The protesters, who announced the location of the protests via the social networking website Facebook, urged the coffee company not to close the outlets.

“We are only drinking coffee and paying for it,” one protest leader said. “They make money, we get our message across.”

This time, police will be waiting for them. “We are monitoring the targeted outlets and if necessary will arrest any person wearing black as they approach the outlets,” a police spokesman said. — South China Morning Post

MAHATMA GANDHI’S WORDS OF WISDOM

QUOTE ON PEACE

Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.

Dalai Lama

Fears of Sri Lanka ‘catastrophe’

BBC NEWS

The army claims rebels fired on the civilians as they crossed the lagoon The Red Cross says its staff in Sri Lanka are witnessing an “unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe” in the area where troops have trapped Tamil Tigers. The agency says a ferry loaded with aid has been unable to reach the battered north-eastern coastal strip for three days because of fighting. There are also reports that staff have quit the last hospital in the war zone. A senior UN envoy is on his way to Sri Lanka to try “to help resolve the humanitarian situation”, the UN says. Vijay Nambiar, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff, is expected to arrive on Friday. Last month Mr Nambiar met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa but failed to secure access to the war zone for humanitarian teams.  The UN says about 50,000 civilians are trapped in the war zone, although Colombo disputes this figure. The government has rejected international calls to stop its offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels, saying it would give them time to recover. Now that it has trapped the Tamil Tigers, it hopes to soon end the 25-year-old civil war.   The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its chartered ferry, the Green Ocean, had been unable to deliver aid or evacuate the wounded for three days. “Our staff are witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe,” said ICRC director of operations Pierre Krahenbuhl, based in Geneva. “Despite high-level assurances, the lack of security on the ground means that our sea operations continue to be stalled, and this is unacceptable,” he said. “People are left to their own devices.” The ICRC says it requires security and unimpeded access to the area immediately. In a statement, it said another aid ship, from the World Food Programme, was also waiting to deliver supplies to the war zone. Hospital abandoned The BBC’s Charles Haviland in Sri Lanka says there are also unverified reports that medical staff have abandoned the main hospital in the rebel-held area because of persistent shelling. One report said that about 400 badly wounded patients had been left behind, along with more than 100 bodies awaiting burial.   The government and the rebels blame each other for civilian casualties Dozens of civilians have been reported killed in artillery attacks on the facility in recent days. Earlier on Thursday, a military spokesman told the BBC that unmanned aircraft had filmed more than 2,000 people wading across the lagoon which borders the fighting zone on the non-seaward side. Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said the civilians had braved rebel fire to reach government-held areas. “There is a large number of people crossing, and the (rebels) fired at them. Four people were killed, 14 were wounded,” he said. The Sri Lankan army’s version of events cannot be independently verified and there has been no comment from the rebels. The authorities and the rebels blame each other for civilian deaths. ‘Shock’ As the fighting continued, Britain said on Thursday that it supported an early inquiry into whether war crimes have been committed in Sri Lanka. “We would support an early investigation into all incidents that may have resulted in civilian casualties,” said junior foreign minister Bill Rammell. He said the UN’s estimate of more than 6,500 civilian deaths since January was – if accurate – “truly shocking and appalling”. The UK-based charity Save the Children said on Thursday that a growing number of children were becoming separated from their families as they fled the war zone and entered government-controlled camps. “The camps are chaotic,” said spokesman Branko Golubovic. “These children are coming out of combat areas where they have been severely traumatised only to find themselves in yet another harsh environment in the camps.” Nearly 200,000 civilians are believed to be living in the government’s overcrowded displacement camps.

Quotes : On Peace

 

“This is the way of peace: overcome evil with good,
and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.”

Peace Pilgrim

Quote : On Forgiveness

 

Forgiveness
Is the mightiest sword
Forgiveness of those you fear
Is the highest reward
When they bruise you with words
When they make you feel small
When it’s hardest to take
You must do nothing at all…

– Jane Eyre.

Murder of ‘Far Eastern Mata Hari’ linked to Malaysia’s PM-in-waiting

 

Source :  The Malaysian Insider

MARCH 23 – A French arms company is at the centre of a deepening scandal involving the sale of three submarines, the murder of a beautiful Mongolian interpreter and the man most likely to become prime minister of Malaysia next month.

All three have been linked in a sensational sequence of revelations that have convinced many Malaysians the woman was killed to silence her claim for a share in the rewards of the arms transaction.

The scandal exploded last week after French newspaper Liberation alleged the submarines deal and the murder of Altantuya Shariibuu, 28, were connected.

A glamorous and cosmopolitan woman, Altantuya grew up in St Petersburg, spoke Russian, Chinese, Korean and English, moved in elite circles and has been dubbed “a Far Eastern Mata Hari”.She became the mistress of a Malaysian political fixer and was allegedly trying to extort money from him at the time of her violent death.

Two members of an elite Malaysian police unit that protects top politicians are on trial in Kuala Lumpur, accused of shooting her in the jungle and then blowing up her body with military explosives.

Special Branch officers Azilah Hadri, 32, and Sirul Azhar Umar, 36, could go to the gallows if convicted of abducting and murdering Altantuya on October 19, 2006. A verdict is expected early next month.

Their trial is unfolding as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak stands on the verge of taking over as premier after a ruling party leadership election, due within days.

Mr Najib was accused in parliament by a young opposition MP, Gobind Singh Deo, of involvement in the murder. Mr Deo was suspended by the speaker for making the remark. Mr Najib has strongly denied any involvement.

Testimony in an earlier court case has established an intimate personal and financial connection between Altantuya and a close aide to Mr Najib, who was defence minister at the time of the submarine deal.

The aide, Abdul Razak Baginda, was acquitted by a court last November of being an accessory in the murder.

He has since been working on a doctorate at Trinity College, Oxford.

Mr Baginda admitted Altantuya was his mistress for about a year and prosecutors said she had demanded money from him after their break-up.

Just before her death, she arrived in Kuala Lumpur, accompanied by a Mongolian shaman, who was to put a curse on Mr Baginda if he did not pay up.

Altantuya was dragged away from outside Mr Baginda’s home by two Special Branch officers, but he was acquitted after maintaining that he had never given orders for her to be harmed.

The Liberation expose linking the murder to the shadowy world of arms contracts has embarrassed the French warship firm DCNS. Armaris, a firm now merged with DCNS, sold the three submarines to Malaysia in 2002 for Euro 1 billion (RM4.3 billion).

Attention has centred on why Armaris paid Euro114 million to a Malaysian company called Perimekar in 2006.

Opposition leaders alleged in parliament that the payment was a “commission” for intermediaries and that Perimekar was secretly owned by Mr Baginda. Mr Najib replied that it was not a “commission” and that Perimekar was a “project services provider”. Liberation alleged Altantuya learned of the payment and demanded $US500,000 (RM1,800 million).

DCNS has refused to comment on the case. It is already the subject of a French judicial investigation into corrupt practices. Efforts to contact Mr Baginda, a self-styled political analyst, at his new home in Oxford were unsuccessful last week.

Mr Najib has avoided public comment, but his wife told Agence France Presse she was shocked by attempts to link her husband to the case. – The Australian

Quotes : Inspirational

 

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.
Thornton Wilder

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore,
is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle